RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/about-chinas-booming-gdp-11611000318?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

The economic data Beijing released Monday seems to suggest that China has met expectations that it would be the only major economy to grow in 2020. China being China, there’s much more—and less—to the story.

The top-line data make China a rare good news story in the pandemic year. Inflation-adjusted GDP growth hit 6.5% in the last three months of the year, making it 2.3% for 2020. This contrasts with the rest of the world, where social distancing and lockdowns have triggered some of the worst contractions on record and raise the specter of long and difficult recoveries.

Some of Beijing’s cheerleaders want you to believe this is mainly because the Chinese government acted so aggressively to suppress the pandemic. That story sits uneasily alongside Beijing’s slow-rolling of early information about Covid-19 when more information sharing might have helped other countries.

Beijing adopted particularly aggressive lockdowns once it did act, sealing off entire cities and even now locking down apartment buildings or neighborhoods at a moment’s notice to suppress outbreaks. To the extent anyone can trust Beijing’s data about virus spread, it appears to have Covid mostly under control.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/navalnys-arrest-and-the-west-11611000490?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Russian authorities detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny upon his return to Moscow over the weekend, five months after he survived an assassination attempt in Siberia. His personal courage is as notable as Vladimir Putin’s fear of his appeal.

Mr. Navalny, Mr. Putin’s most effective domestic critic, fell into a coma in August after being poisoned with a chemical nerve-agent of the Novichok group. Last month Mr. Navalny and investigative outlet Bellingcat presented compelling evidence tying the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to the poisoning.

The dissident spent several months convalescing in Berlin, and he could have remained safe outside Russia. But he returned aware that the country’s penitentiary service recently had accused him of fraud and parole violations. On Monday a court ordered that he be held for 30 days, but given Russia’s lawlessness he could remain behind bars for years.

“I know that the criminal cases against me are fabricated,” he said shortly before being taken into custody. He has since called for mass protests. “I’m not afraid of anything and call on you not to fear anything.”

Mr. Putin and his cronies certainly fear him. Mr. Navalny built a national following by exposing high-level corruption, and this isn’t the first time he’s been arrested on dubious charges. Thousands waited to greet him but his flight was diverted to another airport.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16952/washington-riot-end-of-america

But, what if all the talk about “end of America and “death of the American dream” is based on partial or even total misreading and mis-description of the mini-riot in Washington?

What happened, however, seems to have been less dramatic than what the hate-America had wished.

However, for reasons not yet known, most of the over 2,200 members of the Capitol Police were told to stay home for the day.

The best way to probe that is for the Capitol Police to demand that the District Attorney in DC opens an inquest, collects evidence, hears witnesses….

In other words, American democracy is alive and well, with robust institutions capable of dealing with any political crisis within a constitutional framework.

This month’s mob assault on the Capitol in Washington DC has injected new vigor in the “end of America” crowd across the globe. In China and Russia, the talk is centered on the claim that American democracy is no longer a model for nations seeking a global profile. For Khomeinists in the Islamic Republic in Iran and Chavista in Venezuela, the event marked “the beginning of the end” for the “Great Satan”. Some chattering circles in Europe relaunched speculation about the end of America as leader in the international arena.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16963/a-global-calamity-340000000-christians-persecuted

The “extreme persecution” that Christians experience in 10 of the absolute 12 worst nations comes from “Islamic oppression” or is occurring in Muslim majority nations. These include: Afghanistan (#2), Somalia (#3), Libya (#4), Pakistan (#5), Yemen (#7), Iran (#8), Nigeria (#9), Iraq (#11), and Syria (#12).

Eighty percent of India’s Christians “were passed over for food distribution.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.

Considering that for the first time in over a decade, China has made it among the top 20 persecutors—up to #17 from #23 last year—this does not bode well for Christians, who are already “intensely monitored by the state.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.

Similarly, in Turkey, which rose to #25 from #36 last year, every citizen’s “religious affiliation is recorded on the electronic chip of identity cards, making it easy to discriminate against Christians.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.

“More Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.” — Open Doors, World Watch List.

Every day around the world, 13 Christians are killed for their faith; 12 are illegally arrested or imprisoned; 5 are abducted; and 12 churches or other Christian buildings are attacked.

These are among some of the disturbing findings of the recently released Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List (WWL-2021). This annual report ranks the top 50 nations in which Christians are most persecuted for their religion.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/01/resisting-cancel-culture/

“With the West’s leading cultural institutions infiltrated, seized and colonised by the Left, it will often seem to those concerned for their careers that silence is the best policy. That is a mistake, for there are ways to fight back — ways that, like the West itself, arise from the individual. Take heart. Speak up. Fight back. If not you, who?”

Former CIA agent Kent Clizbe, who worked in covert operations, has said the infiltration of Marxist notions into the West of is one of the “the most effective influence operations of all time.” It is one thing to speak of political ideas, but here Clizbe is addressing the psychological effectiveness of Marxist linguistic and social engineering which found willing listeners from the time of the Frankfurt School, established in 1923, in order to destroy the West from the inside.  Similarly Polish philosopher and EU member Ryszard Legutko, in his excellent study, Totalitarian Demons in Democracy (2016), noted that although Communism’s economic system had failed,  Marxism’s ideas of discontent with Christendom and all traditional institutions and mores had not. Clizbe and Legutko were particularly focused on the psychological dimension of power groups and how their perspectives seep into a culture’s mindset, demoralising opposition and acting to silence resistance. As an example, consider the reaction in an ABC newsroom were a reporter foolish enough to jeopardise his or her career by suggesting a story on the many false prophecies of climate alarmist Tim Flannery. It wouldn’t be pretty.

Make no mistake, the post-modern Marxist culture war goes beyond political debate and reason. It pretends to debate but, in reality, only uses buzz words. Don’t you wish you had a dollar for every time ‘consensus’, ‘sustainability’ and the ever-popular ‘inappropriate’ are used to limit and define what may and may not be discussed?  These are zombie mantras, which are not invitations to reason about anything, as clearly seen in Cancel Culture outrages and on programs such as Q&A. The decades-long growth of the West’s hatred of the past in Cancel Culture is appropriately termed cultural Marxism for such a worldview wants the West to cease existing, long seen as an aim of Marxism itself. We see battalions of woke ‘experts’  angrily denounce history and every word uttered by someone who disagrees with them. Thus when Kamala Harris sides with certain kinds of rioters — see the clip below — it is one thing, when anyone disagrees with her, it is deplorable. Furthermore the current COVID crisis and its its daily menu of media echoed alarms has provided extra groundwork for more widespread political control. Of course, yes, there is a genuine virus and, yes, we must be careful, but we are being ‘reset’ under a political-technocratic paradigm that is way beyond a mere ‘nanny state.’

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/01/covid-19-a-realistic-approach-to-community-management/

” This not the time for those who should know better to publicly argue for one or other COVID-19 vaccine, not when full and adequate evidence for any such choice is well down the line. What the current moment most definitely does demand is early treatment, especially for the aged and most vulnerable, and for this two cheap, proven and off-patent drugs are readily available — hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.”

Historically, pandemics generate suspicion, speculation and emotion, before logic and empirical decisions determine optimal management. The current COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Twelve months on, there is an emerging consensus supporting an integration of a four-pillar plan: public health strategies; vaccination; early pre-hospital treatment; and hospital treatment. This position replaces an early confusion, with supporting data appearing on a near daily basis.

Public health strategies are well understood and highly effective, forming the bedrock for disease control, while hospital management is a work in progress but with progressive improvement in outcomes. Typical data for high risk subjects (over 50 years of age with one or more co-morbidities) in the US is currently 18-20 per cent hospitalisation, with mortality around 1 per cent. Less attention has been given to ongoing symptoms, with about 80 per cent of hospitalised patients having profound fatigue and/or breathlessness 3-4 months after discharge. Many are unable to return to full time work six months after the infection is controlled.

The area of intense disagreement is community management combining prevention by vaccine and reduction of hospital admission, using pre-hospital treatment. There is a global expectation that vaccines will dramatically change the current face of COVID-19 while there is broad-based denial that any of the available (unpatented) drugs beneficially alter the natural history of infection. Expectation of a vaccine nirvana alongside therapeutic nihilism are both incorrect, although each is promoted with a vigour rooted in socio-political conviction (and supported by the Pharma industry).

The conclusion, based on logic and data, is that vaccines and early treatment strategies are both necessary for optimal disease control. As a result, a community plan has been formulated, aimed at keeping patients out of hospital. Experienced physicians have developed protocols based on evidence, with sequenced multi-drug regimens  that support over 80 per cent reductions in admissions to hospital and death. Implementation of this approach would effectively end the US, UK,  Canada, and EU hospitalisation crises.

The objective of this brief review is to argue in support of these conclusions, based on an untangling of the pathobiology of COVID-19 over the last 12 months; review of the available data on the three vaccines used in the Western world; and current data supporting significant benefit of pre-hospital drug treatment.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/habibullah-ahmadi-escapes-mandatory-life-sentence-lloyd-billingsley/

Last November Habibullah Ahmadi, 24, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the October 8, 2017, beating of Sara Anne Widholm in Windsor, Ontario. The 75-year-old grandmother did not die until December 17, 2018, but according to Dr. Balraj Jhawar, the beating left her in a “worse state than death.” For this heinous crime, a Tuesday hearing revealed,  Habibullah will not receive the worst possible sentence.

“Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence,” wrote Trevor Wilhelm in the Windsor Star, but Habibullah Ahmadi would not get a life sentence. Instead the hearing focused on “when Ahmadi should become eligible for parole.” The range is 10 to 25 years, and prosecutor Renee Puskas argued that the convicted murderer “should not become eligible for parole for 14 to 17 years,” at best nearly a decade less than the possible maximum.

The Windsor Star report included no photo of murder victim Anne Widholm and no photo of Habibullah Ahmadi. Indeed, no photo of  the murderer has appeared in any report on the crime and trial. In similar style, no public statement has emerged from “Windsor man” Habibullah Ahmadi or any of his family, friends, fellow students or co-workers in the Canadian city.

According to the Star, Widholm suffered from “injuries” including skull fractures, but in a criminal proceeding these amount to “wounds” inflicted by the hand of another. The victim “fell into a coma,” but had actually been beaten into a coma by Habibullah Ahmadi, 21 at the time of the crime.

“High on marijuana and magic mushrooms,” Wilhelm wrote, “he randomly attacked Widholm” as she walked the trail. This ignored the reality that Ahmadi pleaded guilty and the defense failed to prove that marijuana and magic mushrooms played any role. As justice Bruce Thomas said in November, Ahmadi “had the intention to cause Sara Anne Widholm bodily harm” and was “likely to cause her death, and that he was clearly reckless as to whether death ensued.”

The contention that Habibullah Ahmadi “randomly attacked” the grandmother was at odds Dr. Jhawar, who did his best to keep the 75-year-old alive after she suffered the worst wounds he had ever seen. As Dr. Jhawar told the Windsor Star in 2017, it was “not just another random attack.” On Tuesday, the victim impact statements offered other enlightenment.

https://americanmind.org/salvo/how-the-u-s-could-lose-to-china/

America’s unserious political class is totally unequipped to deal with the threat.

The Chinese Communist Party is deathly serious in its pursuit of global hegemony, which, if achieved, would be a nightmare for all who believe in liberty and justice.

By contrast, can it be said of our political class that it is deathly serious about anything fundamental to preserving our way of life?

As 2021 dawns, contrast how the CCP ended last year, with how America’s leaders started this one.

The CCP should have come out of 2020 badly wounded, withering under severe isolation and punishment from a newly resolute West spurred to action over China’s primary culpability in the cover-up and spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it rang in the new year with a diplomatic, economic, and strategic coup—all with the aid of the West.

China and the European Union agreed in principle to an investment pact that the EU’s president described as “an important landmark in our relationship with China” that would “provide unprecedented access to the Chinese market for European investors.” This was quite a reward given China’s depredations—from the coronavirus casualties on Europe’s streets, to the victims of the crackdown on Hong Kong, to the prisoners in the mushrooming Xinjiang gulags.